Industrial automation environments utilize machines during the industrial manufacturing process, such as drives, pumps, motors, and robots. These machines typically have various moving parts and other components that are driven by instructions received from industrial controller systems. Machine builders and Solution Providers typically produce the control logic needed to run on these controllers to control the machines.
In addition to controller logic, other content may be employed or generated during industrial automation operations, such as data sets, drive parameters, cam tables, product formulations, recipes, production data, and human-machine interface (HMI) components. An HMI receives and processes status data from the machines to generate various graphical displays. For example, an HMI graphical display might indicate status metrics of a drive, the pressure of a pump, the speed of a motor, or the output of a robot. The HMI may also provide a mechanism for an operator to send control instructions to an industrial controller system that controls a machine. For example, an operator might use the HMI to direct the control system to update drive parameters, turn on a pump, speed-up a motor, or stop a robot.